A group of former Drug Enforcement Agency members has filed a class action lawsuit against the makers of American Gangster claiming it's defamatory in its depiction of DEA operatives as "villains".
The film describes the case of real-life heroin dealer Frank Lucas who, following his arrest in 1975, turned government informant …

Hollywood untrue

What about U-571?

Does anyone recall U-571, the farcical story of how the Americans captured a German sub and cracked the Enigma code. There's a whole generation of kids now who believe thats how it really happened. Maybe the UK government and the British heros who actually broke the code should be suing too. Maybe then Hollywood will either stick to history or fiction and stop blurring the lines between them... but probably not. Or perhaps Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson really are representitive of the grasp Hollywood has on reality and history and they really do think it becomes whatever they say it is.

@Poor sods

Based on a true story

Just because it says "Based on a true story" at the end of the film doesn't mean all of it is true, then they would've said "True story". Besides isn't that statement part of the film, making it and the whole film potentially completely fictitious. How could this case not have been thrown out, its a movie ffs!

"Based on a true story"

But when they say that how can you tell which bits were invented and which bits are accurate?

Putting a blanket statement like they did at the end of the movie implies that this is "fact", so if that fact is wrong and actually defames REAL people, then I think they are right in suing.

Anyway, the typical audience Hollywood makes movies for nowadays has an increasingly limited ability to TELL fiction from fact. I mean look at how many christian fundamentalists there are in the USA!!!

See also Fargo:

(from wikipedia)

Fargo begins with the opening text:

THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.

Although the film itself is completely fictional, the Coens claim that many of the events that take place in the movie were actually based on true events from other cases that they threw together to make one story. Joel Coen said, "We weren't interested in that kind of fidelity. The basic events are the same as in the real case, but the characterizations are fully imagined." He later noted, "If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept."

British heroes broke Enigma - Yes they did mostly

>Um, wasn't it Poles that broke the Enigma code? Then handed it to the British several years later?

A Pole part broke -one- of the pre war Enigma machines but it had less wheels and was was less complex then the German Army Enigma (which in turn was less complex then the German Navy Enigma ) as I recall.

There is no doubt that without the the British work both Army and Navy Enigma's would have been unbroken, but yes, they would have been delayed if the commercial Enigma machine information had not been made available.

U571 Film was 100% BS- US didn't help (with Enigma) they only relayed some encrypted messages as I understand it.

And lets not start on...

@U571, misc.

While the film was mostly BS, I believe that an Enigma machine was recovered from a German sub before the war ended---just not likely in the way the film portrayed. While this was useful, it was the code breaking efforts of the Brits (and the development of the first digital electronic computer--Colossus?) that did most to turn the tide a.f.a.i.k.

Re. DEA agents complaining about the film not being factual... Aww, are they complaining about not being treated fairly and with respect? I have little doubt that if the film doesn't speak of actual corruption in that one case, that there's plenty to go around.

IMHO the film should at least say "based on a true story", or even have a disclaimer stating that some of the events portrayed are fictitious---why do people insist on reopening old wounds and stirring up controversy just to make a buck?

Based on a true story (but mostly fiction)

Critical thinking, skepticism

We here in the United States have for some time lamented the cessation of teaching of critical thinking in (primary) school. Whether that is just nostalgia, nobody has the double-blind statistical testing to say.

Hollywood showing dramatic stories and describing them as true is an exercise for the thoughtful skeptic, as is any other claim prior to verification.

I happen to be a skeptic most days, so I can give advice on how to translate the text in question:

"Based on a true story" - writers were inspired to create this story after hearing a story that they're pretty sure is true.

"This story is true!" or "Other events are depicted exactly as they happened." - we have written this story to appear convincingly authentic to the kind of person who think our own claims that it is true are satisfactory verification of the matter.

Enigma etc.

Amazing how much confusion there still is over this.

The Polish broke the 3-rotor Enigma in the 1930s - thanks, in large part, to the spy Hans Thilo, who provided code books. The main figure in this was Marian Rejewsky whose team worked for the Biuo Szyfrow,

The bomba was invented then.

When it became clear that Poland would not last long, the Poles - to their eternal credit - arranged a meeting with the French and British and handed over everything they had.

(Incidentally - and not much of a reflection on the powers that were - Rejewsky made it to England, but was never allowed to work on Enigma by the British...)

At Bletchley Park this work was extended, in partcular with the bombe, designed by Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman.

Colossus was designed (by Max Newman, Turing's supervisor at Cambridge) and built at the PO Research Station at Dollis Hill, by Tom Flowers, Sid Broadhurst and W.W. Chandler.

It was NOT designed to crack Enigma, but to crack "Fish" a teleprinter-code used for sending strategic, rather than tactical information.

Alan Turing was NOT involved in the design of Colossus - he was in Washington DC at the time.

And, oh yes a codebook was indeed rescued from a sinking U-boat - at the cost of at leat one British life.

Put not thy trust in Wikipedia or the American notion of history. (After all, in "The Burma Story" Erroll Flynn apparently defeated the Japanese in Burma single-handed - despite the fact that no US troops fought in Burma at all).

Hell, what did Henry Ford say about history?

Perhaps more to the point is what George Santayana said...

All of this information is readily available - particularly in Hodge's magnificent biography of Turing and on Tony Sale's codeberakers' web site: http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/

Hollywood, all amatures

Historic Scotland makes Holywood look like girl scouts. Historic Scotland are supposed to protect scottish history and historic monuments and building, they seem to chuck away whole sections of history if it doesn't fit their percived take on it. They would reduce Scotland to a "Brigadoon" meets "Braveheart" to keep the tourists happy. They are the embodyment of all that is bad about QUANGOs (quasi-atonomous non-goverment organisation), come the revelotion they be the first put up against the wall.

Arabian Guy sues Fox...

For all the poorly thought footage that they broadcast as "based on real facts" in which all remotely tanned people are scaremongers.

Not true of course, but they should ;)

Actually we all should for I can't find a single socio-professionnal category that has never been badly misrepresented in an holliwood movie or another footage.

Ho, and the day an AI gains its full democratic rights, I wouldn't like to be a producer. Nor the day aliens discover the subtties of US judiciary habits. Man, this is gonna be a huge pile of galactic cash out of their pockets!

@ Deryk Barker

Actually as a non yank (I'm aussie) I get rather peeved with the yanks claiming other people's glory.

However I am pretty sure that US troops did indeed fight in Burma, both on the ground (e.g. "Merrill's Marauders") and in the air, eg the "Flying Tigers" and the USAAF flyers supplying China over "the hump".

Try

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Burma_India_Theater_of_World_War_II for a probably US centric but easy to find description of US involvement in the theatre.

To a lesser extent I also get pissed with you Brits who in the past - WWI especially - frequently claimed Commonwealth/Dominion/Imperial troops victories ("Glorious British Troops on the Somme") as British and the those same forces losses were correctly presented as Australian, Indian, NZ etc ("those undisciplined colonials").

I'm English, so does that mean.......

They seem to be suprised and upset...

C'mon guys - this is Hollywood we're talking about here. Since when did Truth and Facts ever mean anything to them? Look at all the 'factual' films they've made - especially where other parts of the world are involved. The yanks won WWII, won every battle in 'Nam (so how they lost the war is anyone's guess!) etc etc ad infinitum. I just can't watch some of the drivel they churn out any more.

my blah

To the Aussie AC - 'However I am pretty sure that US troops did indeed fight in Burma'

Yeah there were US troops in Burma, as well as US trained Chinese troops. They fought alongside the British and Indian troops.

(Least thats what i remember my grandfather telling me, he fought in Burma).

On the article subject. What a totally ridiculous case. Okay yes, it didn't portray the Narcs in a favourable light, but watching the film it's clear that this is fictitious. That's the idea of the disclaimer. Most people know that anything produced by Hollywood needs to be viewed with an objective eye. Bringing this to sue, means they bring themselves into the public eye, rather than people just dismissing it.